By Stephen Zeitchik John and Bonnie Raines were an ordinary young married couple in the early 1970s, raising three children in a Philadelphia suburb, he a college professor and she a homemaker. John had been a Freedom Rider in the 1960s, and he and his wife each attended anti-war protests. But neither showed a Read More

By Kenneth Turan “1971” is an appropriately matter-of-fact title for a decidedly low-key documentary. But don’t mistake a lack of flash for an absence of substance. The story told here couldn’t be more significant or more timely. As directed by Johanna Hamilton (who co-produced the excellent “Pray the Devil Back to Hell”), “1971” tells Read More

by Gary Thompson … “”1971” moves briskly through the efficient planning and execution – selecting the soft target of a bureau branch office in Media, waiting until the night of the Ali-Frazier fight, making off with the files, mailing them to news organizations. Elements of this are amusing – Bonnie Raines cases the office Read More

By Andrew Buncombe. They are older now, some of them are frail. One has passed away. But more than 40 years ago they were involved in an unlikely, unprecedented break-in at an FBI office and the release to the media of thousands of pages of documents that revealed staggering institutional abuse. Their effort to reveal Read More

By Stephen Holden. In the age of encryption, computer hacking, WikiLeaks and Edward J. Snowden, the theft of typewritten government documents from an unlocked file cabinet 44 years ago by ordinary citizens may seem quaint. But on the evening of March 8, 1971, while much of America was distracted by the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight, Read More

by Richard Brody. This documentary, by Johanna Hamilton, unpacks a crucial but little-known episode in modern political and journalistic history. On March 8, 1971, eight antiwar activists broke into a small F.B.I. office in the aptly named town of Media, Pennsylvania, and stole files showing that the government was trying to suppress legitimate dissent; they Read More

By Jason Bailey. In March of 1971, a group of antiwar protestors called “The Citizen’s Commission to Investigate the FBI” broke into the FBI field office in Media, Pennsylvania, and stole every file in the joint. Among them were detailed descriptions of the agency’s surveillance and penetration into various “subversive” organizations — y’know, like antiwar Read More